EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN HOARD-SIDE - March 2025

Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, 2020

The value of a hoard was not always determined by the number of coins it contained but by the amount of silver it represented. This certainly appears to be true for coin hoards in the western Mediterranean during the archaic period. For this reason, it is important to consider the metrological rather than strictly numismatic aspects of these hoards. By analyzing their metrology, it could be possible to determine if the coins were counted or weighed. The results have broad implications. In particular, one of the traditional distinctions between bullion and coinage is that the value of a coin was guaranteed by the state so that there was no need for weighing it. However, some hoards suggest that their contents were in fact weighed like bullion. This indicates that the state’s ‘guarantee’ of value was perhaps less entrenched and slower to take effect in local contexts than is normally assumed.

A series of 5th-century BC silver staters, which started to appear in commerce in late 2017 or early 2018, display specific characteristics that suggest that they all come from the same hoard. A significant number of coins, either previously unknown or considered extremely rare from approximately nine eastern Mediterranean mints, including Mallos, Tarsos, Soloi, Holmi, Kelenderis, Ura, Side, Aspendos, Phaselis and various Cyprus mints, were represented in the hoard. There are also at least three groups of coins that still pose a challenge to attribute to a specific mint. This chapter examines the material that belongs to Soloi and Ankhiale.

This is the fourth chapter of the study on what is called the Eastern Mediterranean Hoard (EMH), the contents of which started to appear in commerce in late 2018 or early 2019 and continued to be dispersed until late 2021. Apart from rumours circulating online at the timesuggesting an enormous hoard included an unusually large number of Athenian tetradrachms and some staters-there is no information about its discovery. Due to the large number of coins from the region, Cilicia and Pamphylia are considered the most likely find locations. Unlike in earlier times, when coin dealers often consulted prominent academics and shared details about their inventory 1 , this hoard was quietly dispersed without such collaboration. The present study represents four years of meticulous detective work, piecing together fragmented clues to reconstruct the hoard's contents. While hoards are instrumental in broadening our understanding of the extent of coin production and circulation, the lack of context leads many to speculate, which certainly contributes to research, but it can also be misleading. Speculative inferences, by their nature, involve conclusions or interpretations based on limited evidence, often incorporating biased assumptions or hypothetical scenarios. Once published, they can become particularly dangerous unless challenged quickly. There has been quite a bit of speculation about the coins below, and this study aims to discuss and shed light on some of the earlier speculations. Two small groups, Holmoi and Ura, are combined with one of the largest groups, Kelenderis, in this chapter. As indicated in the previous studies 2 , all the coins recorded were offered during the same period by the same dealers. Despite all the care, it is probable that some coins from the hoard might have been missed, but all indications, i.e., test cuts, chemical cleaning residues, and offerings in multiple lots, suggest that they come from the same hoard. All the coins in these groups are also of the same standard weight, ranging between 10+ grams and 11+/-grams. HOLMOI In studying the hoard geographically from east to west, Holmoi comes next, after Mallos, Tarsos and Soloi. The fact that almost every city with coinage was represented in the hoard from the east Mediterranean suggests that the hoard was the accumulation of a seafaring merchant who anchored each harbour one by one, notwithstanding their direction. Holmoi was briefly mentioned by Pliny the Elder as being on the Sarpedon promontory after the River Kalykadnos 3. Strabo listed the Cilician cities from west to east and mentioned Holmoi as the place where the Seleukeians once lived 4. Since modern travellers scarcely mention

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The Eastern Mediterranean Hoard

A series of 5th century BC silver staters, which started to appear in commerce in late 2017 or early 2018, display specific characteristics that suggest that they all come from the same hoard. A significant number of coins, either previously unknown or thought to be extremely rare from approximately nine eastern Mediterranean mints, including Mallos, Tarsos, Soloi, Holmi, Kelenderis, Ura, Side, Aspendos, Phaselis and various Cyprus mints, were represented in the hoard. There are also at least three groups of coins that still pose a challenge to attribute to a specific mint.

Notae-Numismaticae-Zapiski Numizmatyczne XVI, 2021

Review

The "Demetrius I" hoard was photographed in its entirety in Europe in summer, 2003, before being lotted out to various coin dealers. The following record is based on the photographs of the hoard before cleaning, supplemented by personal examination of some of the coins after cleaning. The hoard comprised 532 coins in total, of which three were gold and the rest silver. Of the 529 silver coins, 450 were tetradrachms and 79 were drachms. The largest component comprised New Style Athenian tetradrachms (105), followed by Temnus Alexanders (92) and bee/stag Aradian drachms (78).

Estudios sobre Patrimonio, Cultura y Ciencias Medievales, 2018

In this article we present for review and discussion 57 gold coins discovered in the vicinity of the ancient site of Amrīt (Syria). Initial examina-tion reveals that these coins are probably from the time of Phocas, King of Amrit. The lack of coins minted in this period, 602-610 AD, that have been found to date on the Syrian coast makes this discovery very significant and will shed light into this area and its remarkable history. Our primary focus will be to analyse this 57 finds from a statistical point of view rather than relate the find to historical events contemporaneous with the manufacture of the coins. The coins seem to have been manufactured in an exceptionally meticu-lous manner by highly skilled artisans evidenced by a minimum variability in weight among the set (C.V. = 1.44%). It is highly likely that two workshops produced the coins; one produced the major part of the cache, another pro-duced the remainder of the set of coins, those of smaller dimensions and weight. The...

Α. Argyri – G. Birtsas – M. Manoledakis, Coins from the Propontis and the Black Sea found during the Metro excavations in Thessaloniki, in: M. Manoledakis (ed.), The Black Sea, in the light of new archaeological data and theoretical approaches. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on the Black Sea in Antiquity (Thessaloniki, 18-20 September 2015), Archaeopress, Oxford 2016, 251-281.

2023

Coin hoards in Southeastern Europe (1st-6th century AD), 2021

Materials from the International Numismatic Symposium “Coin hoards in Southeastern Europe (1st–6th century AD), held in Rousse, Bulgaria, June 20-23, 2019. Procceedings of the Rousse Regional Museum of History, volume 24

2016

Full M.A thesis

Revue belge de Numismatique et de Sigillographie, 2019

This paper aims to introduce a methodical approach for the analysis of coin finds from Greek archaeological sites. With a method for the annual fractionation of coin finds over their issuance period, this study applies a procedure originally developed and used for sites in the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. the paper discusses the difficulties of an analysis of Greek site coin finds resulting in the treatment of the material during the excavations. Therefore, an overview of the state of numismatic research in the sanctuaries of Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea will be given. Because of their historical and functional relations, the graphs of the Panhellenic sanctuaries are presented as case studies for Greek numismatics. The method is taking account of both the long lifespan of the sanctuaries and the geographical origin or the coins. Hence, it enables the comparison of coin series from different archaeological sites regardless of their individual characteristics.

Arab Byzantine Coins and history ed. Tony Goodwin, 2011

INTRODUCTION The 1997 article In 1997 Tony Goodwin and I published a hoard of Byzantine and Pseudo-Byzantine coins which was said to have come from Hama. The article concluded with a discussion of the occurrence of Byzantine copper coins in Syria long after the Arabs had occupied it. 2 This had been already been noted by several authors but had not been studied systematically. We argued that the volume of copper coins involved was far too great to be attributed to casual losses through commercial or military activity. Furthermore the phenomenon needed to be put into context by comparing finds from Syria with those from areas that were still held by the Byzantines: Anatolia, Cyprus and Greece.